Be It Enactedby the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

1. Section 5 of P.L.1994,
c.133 (C.2C:7-5) is amended to read as follows:

5. a. Records maintained
pursuant to this act shall be open to any law enforcement agency in this State,
the United States or any other state and may be released to:

(1) the Division of
Youth and Family Services in the Department of Children and Families for use in
carrying out its responsibilities under law; and

(2) the Department of Human
Services and county and municipal welfare agencies for exclusive use in placing
homeless families and persons in emergency shelters, which include but are not
limited to, hotels and motels.

Law enforcement agencies in
this State shall be authorized to release relevant and necessary information
regarding sex offenders to the public when the release of the information is
necessary for public protection in accordance with the provisions of P.L.1994,
c.128 (C.2C:7-6 et seq.).

b. An elected public
official, public employee, or public agency is immune from civil liability for
damages for any discretionary decision to release relevant and necessary
information, unless it is shown that the official, employee, or agency acted
with gross negligence or in bad faith. The immunity provided under this
section applies to the release of relevant information to other employees or
officials or to the general public.

c. Nothing in this act
shall be deemed to impose any liability upon or to give rise to a cause of
action against any public official, public employee, or public agency for
failing to release information as authorized in subsection d. of this section.

d. Nothing in this section
shall be construed to prevent law enforcement officers from notifying members
of the public exposed to danger of any persons that pose a danger under
circumstances that are not enumerated in this act.

(cf: P.L. 2006, c.47, s.23)

2. This act shall take
effect immediately.

STATEMENT

Currently, Megan's law
requires county prosecutors to assess a sex offender's risk of reoffense and
categorize that offender as low risk (Tier I), moderate risk (Tier II) or high
risk (Tier III). The records and files containing the information and
documentation used to make this assessment currently are available to law
enforcement agencies and to the Division of Youth and Family Services in the
Department of Children and Families.

This bill would expand this
procedure to require that these records be made available to the Department of
Human Services and county and municipal welfare agencies for the exclusive use
in placing homeless families and person in emergency shelters, which include
but are not limited to, hotels and motels.